Evolving data protection needs of enterprises

Digital has become intrinsic to business growth and data has become the core of everything an enterprise does. In light of this, businesses are now realising the growing importance of security. However the question that still remains unanswered is, how prepared are they to combat data breaches? How robust is their data protection? It has become essential for businesses to re-look at their data protection applications and to build innovative new applications that generate rich insights into business, industry and customers which will enable you to make informed decisions and quickly take decisive action as well as to protect this data against any breach.

The Data Protection market is forecasted to reach a whopping $119.95 billion by 2022 from $57.22 billion in 2017.[1] The data protection needs of enterprises are constantly evolving and it is very crucial for Indian organizations to focus not only on data protection but also data recovery. In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling privacy to be a fundamental right, there is a pressing demand for India to write laws on data protection and privacy. India witnessed disruptions from cyberattacks through a ransomware, WannaCry. These attacks and breaches threaten to trigger heavy damages, including loss of data and disruptions in business. They could also involve regulatory compensation. So, policy, rules and practices must address cybersecurity and data breaches.

However, the dynamics of data are changing from devices to data centres to cloud operating environment. As data becomes larger and complex in the virtual environment, how fast and efficient is your data protection infrastructure? What new elements are being used in to make it as efficient as possible? Increasingly organisations are realising the need to have standard practices for not only protecting their assets, but also the importance of data recovery. Hence, very soon, businesses will ensure protection of data from edge to core to cloud. This will help organizations to have seamless control over their data and be prepared for any kind of data braches. Businesses can also leverage advanced data protection solutions and separate copies of their data from the network.

There are multiple ways which Indian businesses can ensure safety of their data. There is a lot of sensitive information within an organization and the best way to safeguard it is by limiting its access to it. Proper authentication measures will be required to access the data. Setting up a good security solution is essential to prevent cyber-attacks in the cloud environment. A device consisting sensitive information should be encrypted to prevent data theft. Most operating systems and software today have in-built encryption options. This will ensure an extra layer of security that the Indian businesses would need to safeguard their information.

There are certain practices that CIOs and CISOs must adopt to protect their business from data losses. To stay protected from threats like hacking and accidental data loss, it becomes essential to create protection copies. Sometimes, those protection copies are at risk too as hackers may take them down as well. CIOs and CISOs must look for more holistic, security-by-design solutions. They must also have a disaster recovery plan in place to ensure that the business can survive cyber-attacks and data loss. Deploying adequate security solutions along with encryption of sensitive data is among the other best practices that an Indian CIO/CISO need to implement in order to ensure data protection.

Businesses now understand that the only way they can secure data is by implementing the right data protection and data recovery solutions, against any kind of traditional as well as emerging threats. Indian organizations have greatly benefitted from data protection as these are usually mid-size businesses which are affected the most due to cyber-attacks. Now with measures being taken to ensure protection of data, these businesses can sustain itself in the long run without the risk of being compromised.

Ripu Bajwa
Director & General Manager , Data Protection Solutions, Dell EMC India